LearnDash vs Ruzuku Comparison 2026
LearnDash is a WordPress plugin at $259 a year for one site, adding hosting and cart costs on top of that licence. Ruzuku is a hosted teaching platform with a genuine free plan that never expires, then $99 a month or $997 a year with no transaction fee ever and unlimited students. LearnDash's true cost sits below its own sticker price only once you already own the WordPress infrastructure it needs. Ruzuku costs more annualised but starts at zero and needs nothing else bought to launch a course.
Turn a WordPress site into a course platform
Course hosting that takes nothing per sale
At a glance
- Ruzuku starts cheaper, at $99.
- Only Ruzuku has a free tier.
- LearnDash bills annually only, so there is no month to try it for.
Side by side
LearnDash | Ruzuku | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $259 | From $99 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Paid subscription | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing (they differ) | Annual only | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | None |
| API |
LearnDash
Turn a WordPress site into a course platform
LearnDash is the answer for somebody who already has a WordPress site and does not want their course living on somebody else's domain. Lessons, quizzes, drip schedules and certificates all become part of the site you own, and the payment plugin is your choice rather than theirs. Hosting, backups and the security of that site stay your problem. That is the whole trade against a hosted platform.
Our note
Add hosting and a payment plugin to the licence before comparing this against a hosted platform, because $259 is the floor rather than the total. The reason to choose it is ownership: the course sits on your domain, feeds your own SEO, and does not disappear if a vendor changes its plans.
Only on this side
- Covers website builders
Ruzuku
Course hosting that takes nothing per sale
Ruzuku sells course hosting with no transaction fee and a free plan that is not time limited, which between them make it a reasonable place to find out whether anybody wants the course before paying for the privilege. Lessons can be dripped, students can be graded and the whole thing runs on Ruzuku's own domain. It will not build you a funnel. Anybody who needs one is in the wrong category.
Why people weigh these two
- Ruzuku instead of LearnDash
- Ruzuku takes nothing per sale from $99 with a free tier, so the fee does not scale with the course price.
- LearnDash instead of Ruzuku
- LearnDash turns a WordPress site into the course platform for $259, so the hosting and the fees are yours to set.
Which one should you pick
Pick LearnDash if you already run WordPress and want the course embedded in a site you own, feeding your own search traffic rather than a platform's subdomain. Two hundred and fifty nine dollars a year is the floor, not the total, once hosting and a cart plugin are added.
Pick Ruzuku if you want to find out whether anyone wants the course before paying anything at all. The free plan has no time limit and no card required, and Core at $99 a month, or $997 a year, adds unlimited students with no transaction fee taken at any level. The step from free to $99 is steep with nothing between, so plan to launch for free and move once a course is actually selling.
Common questions
- Which has a genuine free plan, LearnDash or Ruzuku?
- Ruzuku. Its free plan needs no card and does not expire, making it a real place to start rather than a trial. LearnDash has no free tier at all, only its $259 a year licence, which is required from the first day.
- Does either charge a percentage of course sales?
- Neither does. LearnDash takes nothing since the payment gateway is a separate WordPress plugin you choose yourself. Ruzuku states plainly that no transaction fee applies at any tier, so the subscription is the entire platform cost.
- Is LearnDash cheaper than Ruzuku?
- On the licence alone, yes, at $259 a year against Ruzuku's $997. That LearnDash figure excludes hosting and a payment plugin, both already included in Ruzuku's price, so the real gap is smaller than the sticker prices suggest.
- Do I need a WordPress site to use either of these?
- Only for LearnDash, which is a plugin that requires a WordPress site you already run. Ruzuku is fully hosted and needs no separate platform, domain or hosting account to start.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.